``Anything that can happen,`` concludes their interim coach, Don DeVoe,

``happens in sports. You run the gamut.``

Those Gators spoke in the aftermath of a loss to LSU, which came in the aftermath of Dwayne Schintzius` defection, which itself came in the aftermath of DeVoe demanding his 7-foot-2-inch center get himself a haircut. That demand, so ridiculously simple, was a symbol, a statement of principle by DeVoe that came after a fraternity party fracas involving Schintzius, which came after forward Livingston Chatman quitting the team, which itself came after Schintzius and Chatman boycotting the first practice DeVoe had at Florida.

That gets this soap opera back close to the beginning, which found Florida ranked somewhere in the preseason Top 20. Then, on the last day of October, it was announced coach Norm Sloan had resigned under pressure and allegations of wrongdoing, and former Tennessee coach DeVoe would be replacing him.

On Nov. 1, when he had his first practice, Schintzius and Chatman were no-shows (Schintzius was playing golf.), and the following day DeVoe and Garcia were in Atlanta to meet the Southeastern Conference media. ``The hardest practice we ever had. A lot of guys were bitter,`` said Garcia of the previous afternoon`s exercise.

``Probably the easiest practice I had in 16years of coaching,`` said DeVoe.

``A lot of guys felt cheated (by Sloan`s forced resignation). It`s going to take time to regroup,`` said Garcia.

``This will be a real test for me, to see if I can pull it together,``

said DeVoe.

But only the expected sprang from those inauspicious signs, and reports now insist the strong-willed DeVoe continually was at odds with his enigmatic (some say immature) center. (``Sloan was like a father to Schintzius, and when they brought DeVoe in, he didn`t like him,`` says forward Dwayne Davis.) Yet it was another Gator, sophomore swingman Kelly McKinnon, who left the team before season`s start, and in mid-January he was followed by Chatman, who claimed burnout and knees too sore to continue. (``He felt his attitude was sour, that he couldn`t go out and work for the team,`` says Garcia.)

Hard on that announcement, Schintzius and teammate Tim Turner had a contretemps at a frat party that earned both suspensions and hearings before a school disciplinary board. That board eventually deemed both fit for reinstatement, but only Turner chose to return.

Schintzius chose to stew over a mitigating requirement, DeVoe`s insistence that he get a haircut before he rejoin the squad. In a statement announcing he was instead quitting the team, the center said: ``No one can argue that coach Sloan . . . (was) easy to play for, and to (him) you had to accept the coach as absolute authority. But that does not mean you must sail under the authority of Captain Ahab.``

He also said, in that statement, that he indeed had gotten his hair cut, but last weekend there was DeVoe saying this: ``I had a meeting with Dwayne and said, `Did you get a haircut?` He said, `Not really.`

``But hair isn`t the issue. It`s just part of the whole thing. To me, that`s following the standards set for the program. The whole thing is in the area of attitude. We`ve got another, what, 13, 14 games left, and it`s more important how we perform off the court than on. Wins and losses (The Gators are 6-10.) are not the real issue at Florida right now. It`s how we`re perceived, and sometimes when you do the right thing, you don`t make friends.``

Off the court, DeVoe certainly is having trouble finding friends. He now is booed at home games, and before the last one a group called Students Against Don DeVoe (SADD) hung him in effigy. Even Sloan, living in a Palm Beach condo, took a shot at him by saying, ``They don`t care about the players. They care about their own image. Who`s suffering now is the players.``

But at least one of those players thinks differently, and he-significantly-is Schintzius The Younger. He, too, had to get his hair cut under orders from DeVoe, yet now says, ``I had no problem with that, and I`m personally disappointed a little (in Dwayne).

``If anything, I`m getting closer to coach DeVoe. I feel closer because he stood up for the team. I like his idea of team concept.``